By Albert Goodwyn

Chekhov's Three Sisters
















Photo courtesy of mellopix.com

The classic Russian play Three Sisters has opened at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This adaptation of the early Twentieth Century Russian play by Anton Chekhov tells the story of a family who had to move eight hundred miles away from their beloved Moscow. Soldiers from the local encampment bunk at their house. The brother is a violinist and the sisters are longing to be back in Moscow. Berkeley Rep uses a new version based on a literal translation.

Playwright Sarah Ruhl is credited for the adaptation from the translation. The long play takes place on the Addison Street thrust stage. Between the soldiers, the family and the servants, the actors
have a chance to portray a wide variety of characters. The Christmas snowfall could make you want hot cocoa.

I walked after the 75-minute first act. I could not bear what I perceived as bad acting by talented professionals. Barbara Oliver and James Carpenter, Bay Area favorite actors were given minimal parts.James could have been used in a more prominent part and Barbara should have been more highly featured as the nana. Les Waters evidently decided that he needed to make Sarah Rule's conception of Chekhov abundantly clear, so that a high-school tyro could act the one-dimensional characters and an eigth- grader could understand the plot. As a result, the actors focus on just one aspect of their characters. The sisters Olga, Masha and Irina are respectively -- and baldly -- practical, bitchy and dreamy. There was no more to their characters than those severely limiting attributes.

The production itself is well accomplished. The use of contemporary language gives it a slight sense of immediacy. The actors played their clichéd parts very well. I know the plot. I saw enough of the attempt to justify my wish not to waste time.

Three Sisters continues through May 22 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison Street, Berkeley. Tickets ($54 to $73) are available online at http://tickets.berkeleyrep.org or by phone at 510.647.2949  or 888 4BRT TIX (888 427–8849).
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By Albert Goodwyn

Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) and Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) take an ill-fated carriage ride.

Photo courtesy of Apparition and GK Films

Queen Victoria of England rose to the throne because of her father’s lack of a male heir, this much is true. In the movie The Young Victoria, her possible reactions and growth are dramatized in a lushly romantic costume drama of epic proportions. This film explores the development of a young woman as she rises to an extraordinary level of power and tries to shed hereditary bonds that would keep her from exercising her free will. Producers Sarah Ferguson and Martin Scorsese have paid amply close attention to historical fact.

With Emily Blunt as the Queen, the movie delineates the early years of England's longest-reigning monarch. The story begins before her accession to the throne, details her surprisingly passionate, politically motivated love affair with Prince Albert of Germany (Rupert Friend) who married her and became her Royal Consort, and ends before the royal couple complete some of the major accomplishments of the Industrial Age.

Blunt's portrayal of a privileged woman who, dominated by well-meaning but oppressive family and ministers, finds her own voice and mature confidence as she takes the throne. During the film's story Blunt exhibits first naïveté then recognition of the effects this immense worldwide power is having on her and her relationship with her lover.

Friend as the Consort does an admirable job of acting the difficult part of a bedroom companion with no constitutional status or power, but who has significant influence over his spouse. He is devoted to her, and being of royal background himself respects her power. Friend is able to show Albert’s love for his wife and to keep his stiff Teutonic spine in the face of her queenly demands.

The compelling story of Victoria’s coming of age is richly detailed with glorious costuming and site-specific location settings. She was the first English sovereign to live in Buckingham Palace; the new rooms look lovely. All dressing, props, makeup, and attitudes seamlessly interweave to evoke a bygone age. The compelling cinematography moves effortlessly from grand spectacle through palatial rooms to intimate encounters. Aside from the accurate historical narrative, the movie presents a deeply moving insight to a young woman’s ascendant struggle to fulfill her destiny as a country’s most powerful figure.